“Pretending that you are going to take hostage the credit worthiness of the United States of America to get your deal done is irresponsible, not realistic, and we are not going to deal on the debt. That does not mean we won't get to some agreement on issues that we differ on... We want to do that. But we're not going to be held hostage and forced to do so on a deal that we don't like because of the debt limit. The Republicans took this country to the brink of default and as a result, for the first time in history we were downgraded by one of the rating agencies.... We weren't downgraded because the United States doesn't have the resources to pay its bills. We were downgraded because they weren't sure we had the political will to pay our bills. The Republican strategy of pretending they are going to take hostage the debt limit to get their priorities done is a bad one and harmful to our country and we're not going to buy it.”

“[Democrats] want an immigration bill. We want a comprehensive immigration bill that has a pathway to citizenship... I think the Senate is going to pass a bill. I think there is bipartisan support for that bill. And when it comes here [to the House] I am hopeful that we will put it on the Floor and I think it can pass.”